Why Humans Can’t Just Accept the Status Quo: The Power of Being Woke in a Changing World

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Look around any app like Clubhouse or any YouTube channel, and there are dedicated segments for personal development and growth momentum. I mean, come on, who am I kidding. Even my own business model is dependent on how quickly you want to get to your “personal best“.

Jokes apart, this seems to be the problem with humans. We can’t simply make a living and relax our way through the day. We want to get recognized through our contributions and impact in the society. We want to be valued by others.

We seem to have this deep yearning for finding our true love, to live free of fear, and appreciate beauty wherever we see it.

Actually, the reason for all this self-inflicted drama is our wiring. You see, humans are wired to see ourselves as social animals in the context of community. After all, we’re not robots without feelings, emotions and desires. We want connection, security and most importantly, significance.

That is why we’re so interested in cultivating the self. Mind, body and spirit. That’s why we seek these places and get attracted to these products and people who show us a mirror to our best selves and what might become of us if we aspire for higher, lofty goals.

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Of course, first and foremost, for growth to happen, our survival must be guaranteed. It is easy typing this in the comfort of my office room in the middle of winter, when I have a nice, warm meal waiting for me in the other room (the one that I cooked for myself LOL). But, you get the point.

When our immediate survival needs are met, humans have the tendency to start aspiring for something more than the mere basics. That’s when we start asking ourselves. “Is this all there is to life? Now what?”

Just look at how we parent our children. Parenting teaches us to be humble, to be open minded, learn from our mistakes, to cope with our emotions and to get out of our comfort zone, doesn’t it?

And these roles that we adopt for ourselves, be it, employee, CEO, wife, mother, etc. – keep showing us the way to keep getting out of status quo so we can grow and become our best versions of ourselves.

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But, its important to remember that there are pitfalls to becoming “woke” to our self-development. Once we start realizing our full potential, we suddenly what others around us might be also capable of. We will want all those people also to jump onto the bandwagon of learning everything we’ve found out about life so they can avoid mistakes.

Here’s the thing though, even our mistakes can be stepping stones in our journey. So, allow others to fail and get back up on their own. And our children are watching. So we must make sure that our busyness doesn’t become a proxy to our productivity.

Another pitfall is in our desperate need to get to the ultimate goal, we cannot miss out on the joy of the small pockets of change in ourselves. There’s celebration even in the small things. We must leave time in our day to wander and wonder too.

Here’s the final point. OK, maybe you’re happy with status quo, you’ve achieved everything you aspired for and a little more. So, does that mean, you will settle for playing small for the rest of your life??

Come, it’s time to wake up and kick status quo to the curb. Not everything can be said in words. Just ask life to color you everything!

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